design software

[Zero]

We've had Rhino here since v1, but I didn't really start using it untill v3 came out. We just used it for it's IGES translators back then, they're the best I've come across in any program, and that alone was worth the minimal price we paid for it. When v3 came out I decided to sink my teeth into surface modeling with it and after about a week of using it I found I really liked it for all the reasons stated by the other users here. It's surfacing powers are absolutely amazing, especially at the price the program costs. It's so easy to use, and the interface is a dream...customizable docking toolbars, left/right click options, quick keys and manual entries...you can really fly getting stuff created with minimal clicks and movement of the mouse, working in 4 views at the same time .

 

There are a couple of drawbacks with Rhino though that you should probably know before diving in (which is why I think the price is still so low, once they have these taken care of I believe we will see a large price hike with this program as its surfacing power rivals that of the other big dollar systems).

 

Solids in Rhino are pretty limited. It's much better with surfaces than solids, which is fine by me, I prefer modeling with surfaces at this point because I haven't really worked with any solid modeler that I haven't had to fight with trying to get what would seem to be the simplist of operations done, but if you prefer modeling in solids you might feel Rhino is pretty week on this end.

 

Also filleting in Rhino is kind of a pain in the a$$. You can only fillet between 2 surfaces at a time, which can turn into alot of time spent building simple fillets on some projects. There are great tools available while doing surface fillets that make it easier to construct, but I've spent a day or more on models just filleting (large complex models mind you). And also there is no command for variable fillets, you have to create them by hand.

 

And shading, as has been mentioned already, leaves a little to desire. It's not really that bad, and if you turn up the graphics settings you can get it better.

 

There is a plugin available called NPower or something like that that claims to drasticly improve solid modeling (adding an actual solid operation history tree which rhino lacks and some boolean stuff) and filleting (it lets you fillet multiple surfaces at a time and also create variable fillets). I tried them for the 30 day trial they offer, and found it to be very buggy and more of a hassle to use than not to use (not to mention it costs half the price of Rhino). I'll just wait for v4 which they are saying will cure most of rhinos lacking in the filleting department and maybe add some more solids tools.

 

And one last thing, their support is excelent. It even rivals this place . They have a newsgroup (yeah it's no BB but it works I guess) thats just as active as these forums and filled with just as helpful and nice people are here. Rhino is very responsive to their custumors wants and needs. Give the 30 day demo Rhino has to offer a whirl, you won't be disappointed.

 

[ 04-15-2004, 10:30 AM: Message edited by: Zero ]

[pimij]

Zero - if you can do it geometry wise - you can do multipe surface fillets by joing the surfaces together and then make your fillet. Does all the surfaces at once.

 

The cool thing about Rhino - if you have it setup you can use the Blue Moon rendering tools and get photorealistic renders - its awesome.

[Zero]

quote:

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you can do multipe surface fillets by joing the surfaces together and then make your fillet. Does all the surfaces at once.

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You cannot fillet polysurfaces (surfaces that have been joined together) in Rhino, if you know of a way please tell me, because I sure could use it.

I used to have BMRT, I'm not sure what happened to it, and sadly it is no longer supported by its makers and is not available on the net for download anymore I have used the demo rendering program that comes with Rhino, Flamingo, and it's amazing. If you spend enough time setting up the rendering it can be really hard to tell whther it's real or not. Pretty pricey for the full version though

[kwolf]

quote:

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You cannot fillet polysurfaces (surfaces that have been joined together) in Rhino, if you know of a way please tell me, because I sure could use it.

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You can use solid fillet (Filletedge command) and select edges of the polysurface for fillet.

BTW Rhino doesn't have a real variable fillet. It's too buggy.

NPowerSolid (a Rhino Plugin) has 3 kinds of fillets: constant radius/variable rad/constant distance. It can shell and do boolean operation between polysurfaces too. But it's not very practical in complex models.